Monday, December 19, 2011

Ne'eman's Sufganiyot Chanukah 5772

When I saw
Ne'eman's ad for this Chanukah's line of sufganiyot some of the different
flavors seemed interesting to me. Ne'eman has come a long way from their humble
beginnings, back in 1944 when the founder and grandfather Rabbi Baruch Ne'eman
peddled his baked goods through the streets of Jerusalem's Bucharim neighborhood in a baby carriage and sold
pastries, including sufganiyot, to the locals (as you see depicted in the
pretty mural-like drawing on the cool box I got when I bought the sufganiyot).

Ne'eman now has about 40 branches all over the country. Since I think many of
my Israeli readers have access to Ne'eman doughnuts I decided to give them a try
and post a review.

Ne'eman has
13 different doughnuts in this year's line of sufganiyot. Here's what I thought
of the 5 doughnuts I tasted.

As would be
expected it seemed that Ne'eman used the same basic doughnut base for all the
sufganiyot but came up with many different fillings, coatings and topping for
their Chanukah 5772/2011 line of sufganiyot. The doughnuts themselves were
light and fluffy yet I absolutely tasted that they were fried in deep oil. To
me it seemed like they used a classic Israeli Chanukah sufganiyah recipe. There
was something nice and "nostalgic" about that.

I think I liked their
doughnut recipe better than all the supermarket ones I reviewed here ,
still I don’t think these Ne'eman doughnut will be winning a pastry award any
time soon.

Size-wise
all the doughnuts I got were about 8-9cm. in diameter.

Cheese Cake
Flavor Sprinkled with Biscuit Crumbs

As I
mentioned in my review of Kapulsky's Sugar-Free Cheese Cake I really enjoy a
good cheese cakes so when I saw the this doughnut flavor on Ne'eman's ad it intrigued
me most and made me want to try their doughnuts, so that’s the one I tasted
first.

The cheese
cake filling was a thickish custard-like filling. At first I had a hard time
tasting the cheese cake flavor at all, but once I was able to get past the
somewhat margarine/shortening type taste, I think I picked up on a cheese cake
flavor. Maybe it was mind over matter and had I not known that Ne'eman was
going for a cheese cake flavor I may never have noticed it at all. The
margarine-like taste of the cream kind of surprised and disappointed me. Given
that these doughnuts are dairy I was not anticipating that kind of an issue.

Compared to
the doughnuts I bought at the supermarket this one had a lot more filling. The
filling was also piped on top of the doughnut and then sprinkled with biscuit
crumbs, like you would find on many cheese cakes. It seemed as though Ne'eman
actually used the crumbs they normally put on their cheese cakes. I enjoyed the
biscuit crumbs. Like the filling, the crumbs were sweet but not overly so. In
my opinion the biscuit crumbs added a nice taste and texture to the cheese
cake doughnut.

This Cheese
Cake doughnut was disappointing but not awful. I think it needs improvements. I
may have liked the idea of this doughnut more than the doughnut itself.

The next Doughnut
that seemed fun and interesting to try was the

Bamba Flavored Doughnut.

The first
day I stopped by Ne'eman and saw the doughnuts the Bamba one had the same
pretty "flowers" and dots of chocolate as you see on the one I got
but it also had an actual bamba snack stuck in the middle. I didn’t buy doughnuts
that day because they didn’t have the cheese cake one that I really wanted to
taste. The day I did buy the doughnuts for some reason there was no actual
bamba snack on the bamba flavored doughnuts.

But hay, that’s ok, I think it's
pretty enough this way too. And I'm not sure I would've love the texture of the
puffed corn snack mixed with the softer fluffier doughnut.

Texture-wise
the filling of this doughnut was very much like that of the cheese cake one. It
had a thickish custard-like feel to it.

There was
no doubt in my mind that this was the bamba doughnut. It was clearly a peanut
butter flavored filling yet I didn’t think they went overboard on the peanut
butter flavor. In my book that’s a good thing. Personally I would have
preferred a bit more chocolate as a contrasting flavor but then it would have
been a peanut butter cup doughnut and not a bamba one. Given that Israeli kids
are more fond of bamba than peanut butter cups I get why Ne'eman went for the bamba
flavor and not peanut butter cups, but hay I guess that’s an idea for next year.

I thought
the bamba doughnut was enjoyable and an original flavor for a doughnut.Something about the gelatin-like texture of
the flowers on top bothered me a drop. They must have added something to the
mixture to help the flower shapes stay put and it slightly changed the taste
and texture, not enough to ruin the doughnut for me but still something small I
thought worthy of mentioning.

Marshmallow
Doughnut

I was slightly
disappointed when I realized that the filling of this doughnut was not a
marshmallow fluff or made with marshmallows at all. Instead it's actually
filled with a white chocolate cream, which was sweet and tasty. I enjoyed it, but
given that it's being called the "marshmallow doughnut" I was
anticipating a marshmallow related filling.

The other
thing that slightly disappointed me was compared the other two doughnuts I just
tasted, this one had a lot less filling in it. I'm not sure if that’s random or
maybe it's because this white chocolate filling is that much sweeter than some
of the other fillings so they chose to put a bit less of it in the doughnuts.

What gave
this doughnut its name are the mini marshmallows that are placed on top of the
hardened white chocolate ganache coating. I guess from sitting in the open air,
the outside of the marshmallows hardened a bit. The hardening added a gummy-like
texture to the marshmallow. I enjoyed that.

As a whole
I liked the combination of the white chocolate ganache, white-chocolate cream
filling and marshmallows, but it was very sweet. I think kids of all ages that enjoy
super sweet treats will like this doughnut.

Gianduja Doughnut

The store
manager described this doughnut to me by saying "it’s our take on what a Ferrero Rocher chocolate treat might be in doughnut form".

Gianduja, according
to Wikipedia, "is a sweet chocolate containing about 30% hazelnut paste…In
addition to the classic interpretation of gianduja, modern confectioners often term
any combination of nut, chocolate and sugar as a gianduja…" Now I
understand why Ne'eman called this doughnut gianduja.

The coating was
thinner than the white-chocolate ganache used in the marshmallow doughnut. This
gianduja chocolate did not harden like the white-chocolate ganache did, instead
it was sticky and gooey and I liked that.

This doughnut, like
the marshmallow one, also had a fairly small amount of the filling inside. That
was a bit disappointing to me.

The sugared chopped
nuts on top were a wonderful addition. The texture was perfect, not too hard
yet still crunchy. I liked how they added a nice extra flavor and crunch. Mooi cookies should learn from Ne'eman how to make wonderful sugared hazelnuts that
don’t make you feel like you might break a tooth on them. Ne'eman's sugared
nuts worked perfectly with this soft and fluffy doughnut.

I really enjoyed
this Gianduja doughnut. I was a bit surprised with myself that of all the
doughnuts I tasted this was the one I was thinking about the next morning and
it's the doughnut I suggested to my friend when she asked which one I thought she
should buy.

The filling
is a very sweet chalva cream that I think Ne'eman uses in many of their chalva
flavored pastries. On top of the doughnut they put white-chocolate ganache,
shredded chalva strands, halved pistachios and a drizzle of date silan. All of
the rich sweet flavors are clearly represented and yet, in my opinion, they
work very well together. For the many Israelis that enjoy chalva, pistachio and
honey flavors, this very sweet doughnut should be right up their alley.

I thought
it was an original and creative combination of flavors for a sufganiyah. I
liked it but it was a bit on the sweet side. I couldn’t eat too much of it. This
time I got a nice amount of filling in my doughnut so with a hot cup of green
tea a little went a long way for me, still it was an enjoyable treat.

Bottom Line:
All the flavors I tasted really varied one from another and made the same basic
and classic sufganiyah taste very different depending on the filling,
coating and toppings. I thought Ne'eman did a good job coming up with flavors
that work well together and with the doughnut. There seems to be a flavor for
every palate. When I saw the ad I thought the cheese cake or the bamba flavored
one would be my favorite but in actuality the one that I enjoyed the most was
the gianduja doughnut.

If you try any
of them let me know which you liked best. Chanukah Samach to one and all!!

Ne'eman's
doughnuts range in price from 5.00-7.00 NIS depending on the fillings and
toppings. When I bought the doughnuts they had a deal going of buy 5 get 1
free. I think that will continue throughout Chanukah but I am not 100% sure.

2 comments:

HI One Tired EmaYeah I liked the Gianduja one a lot too:)I wanted to taste the Almond one too but they didn't have it the day I bought the doughnuts- glad u liked it. It looks good in the ad photo:)חנוכה שמח!

About Me

I love trying new things. Seeing as most of the reviews I find for products, here in Israel, are written in Hebrew I decided to start a blog reviewing anything & everything new I try. My goal is to have fun trying new stuff at the same time as I help others decide what to try & what to skip:)
Daniela